K-9 Midnight and his handler were honored at Stetson University’s game vs UCF Wednesday for the pair’s heroic rescue of a lost child last month. 

The entire DeLand Police Department K-9 Unit was recognized during the opening ceremony with K-9 Midnight and our newest K-9 Max in attendance alongside their handlers Corporal Clark and Officer Rideout.

In late March, K-9 Midnight and Corporal Clark were deployed to search for a lost child. The two were able to find the 3-year-old boy in about 45 minutes and return him safely to his family.

Also in attendance at Wednesday’s game was Zoie Weinberger, K-9 Zoie’s namesake. Zoie’s parents Eric and Megan Weinberger generously donated K-9 Midnight and K-9 Zoie to our department. Zoie, a student-athlete at Stetson University, is part of the women’s soccer team.

“This is an example of this generous donation making a difference in our community,” said Chief Jason Umberger. “K-9 units are instrumental to police departments serving a variety of missions from finding missing people to tracking down drugs and criminals.”

The DeLand Police Department K-9 team consists of three units: K-9 Midnight, paired with Corporal Clark, K-9 Zoie, paired with Officer Scott and K-9 Max, paired with Officer Rideout.